December 13, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 2, 1428

BANGALORE, Dec 12: Injured Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik defended his team’s performance in the 1-0 Test series loss against India after the tourists avoided a defeat courtesy bad light on the final day of the third Test here on Wednesday. “I think a lot of players have done well on this tour and although we lost the one-day series 2-3 and the Test rubber 1-0 it’s not as bad as it’s been projected,” Malik said in his post-match comments.

Chasing a tough 374-run target in just 48 overs, the Pakistan batsmen played pathetically. At 162-7 defeat was staring in their face when bad light stopped play 12 overs before the scheduled close.

Malik’s appearance in the press conference was once again questioned by the media personnel who wanted stand-in captain Younis Khan to answer the volley of questions.

Pakistan media manager Dr Ahsan Hameed Malik had no clue but defended the decision by saying that Younis attended the post-match ceremony while the captain of the series Malik was brought for the press conference.

Malik also supported Indian captain Anil Kumble’s decision of declaring the second innings late, saying his team was leading 1-0 in the series.

“I think Kumble did the right thing. They have a very important tour of Australia coming up in the next few days so they would not want to risk injuries to their bowlers.”

The Pakistan captain also dispelled the impression that weather conditions rescued his side from defeat in the ending moments of the final Test here, insisting: “It is wrong to say that we were saved by bad weather. Yousuf bhai was there and the way Mohammad Sami has batted in the series, we were very confident of saving the game.”

Malik termed the third morning of the first Test as the turning point of the series.

“We lost the series by playing badly on the third morning at Delhi. Had we scored more runs in the second innings there, things would have been different,” said Malik, whose captaincy will also come under scanner after the defeat.